It Came From the British Invasion: “A Groovy Kind of Love” by The Mindbenders

The band that recorded it had just lost its lead singer. Meanwhile, those responsible for it were just starting their careers, with the lyricist still in her teens. And it hit not only once, but twice, when two decades later, the song was turned—almost against the artist’s will—into a U.S. No. 1.

The song in question is “A Groovy Kind of Love,” which was a No. 2 U.S. hit for the British band The Mindbenders after its 1966 release, and did one better as a chart-topper for Phil Collins 22 years later. Here’s the somewhat unlikely story of how this all came to pass.

Feeling “Groovy”

Before they were just The Mindbenders, they were Wayne Fontana and the Mindbenders. In fact, they were essentially a group assembled to back a star turn by Fontana. That formula worked quite well on the 1965 U.S. No. 1 hit “The Game of Love.” But the mercurial Fontana soon expressed frustration that the band’s followup singles had faltered, and he bolted from a stage performance with the band in 1966, ending his stint with them.

At that point, The Mindbenders might have imploded, but they still had some name-brand capital behind them. They also lucked out in that they had a ringer of sorts waiting to step forward. Eric Stewart was an unknown at the time, but The Mindbenders’ new lead singer, via battlefield promotion, was bound for a long career with 10cc and as a frequent collaborator with Paul McCartney.

While Stewart would eventually develop into an excellent songwriter, The Mindbenders were at that point reliant on others to write their material. (“The Game of Love” was also a songwriter-for-hire product.) Luckily for them, two young American girls with a ton of promise came through for them in a major way.

Carole Bayer, later known as Carole Bayer Sager when she was writing hits for a multitude of pop acts, and Toni Wine, just 17 at the time, were aspiring songwriters who were having trouble getting their stuff heard on their own, which is why they decided to collaborate. Wine explained in an interview with Songfacts the inspiration for their career-making hit was a single word:

“We were talking about ‘groovy’ being the new word. The only song we knew of was ’59th Street Bride Song,’ Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel. You know, ‘Feelin’ groovy.’ And we knew we wanted to write a song with that word in it. Because we knew it was the happening word, and we wanted to jump on that. Carole came up with ‘Groovy kinda … groovy kinda … groovy …’ and we’re all just saying, ‘Kinda groovy, kinda groovy, kinda …’ I don’t exactly know who came up with ‘love,’ but it was ‘Groovy kind of love.’ And we did it. We wrote it in 20 minutes.”

Although the song was a big hit at the time of its release, the fact that The Mindbenders couldn’t follow it up too well might have rendered it somewhat obscure in future years. Cut to 22 years later. Phil Collins did a slowed-down demo of “A Groovy Kind of Love” as a blueprint for Stephen Bishop to record. But the producers of the film Buster, which starred Collins, inserted it into the film without his knowledge. Since it seemed to work in that context, he did a full recording, and it became his fifth solo No. 1 in the U.S.

Behind the Meaning of “A Groovy Kind of Love”

“A Groovy Kind of Love” is a fine example of how an interpretation can color the meaning of a song. The Mindbenders’ original is fun and chirpy, with Stewart sticking close to the melody in his vocal. Sections like Any time you want to / You can turn me on to / Anything you want to / Any time at all flow by light as a breeze.

When Collins sings the song, he adds notes of anguish and desperation. When he sings, When I’m in your arms, nothing seems to matter / My whole world could shatter, I don’t care, it sounds as if he knows what it’s like when a life does indeed fall apart. And when he asks, Wouldn’t you agree / Baby, you and me got a groovy kind of love, it seems as if he’s not sure what her answer will be.

That says something about the cleverness of the words and music of “A Groovy Kind of Love” that it could prove so malleable. It was the gem of The Mindbenders’ catalog, and proved Phil Collins reached a point where he could record even accidental chart-toppers.

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Photo by Evening Standard/Hulton Archive/Getty Images